


Omne Initium Difficile Est

by brevitas



Series: Leader of the Muses [14]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Greek Gods AU, M/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-01
Updated: 2013-04-01
Packaged: 2017-12-07 03:47:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/743846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brevitas/pseuds/brevitas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grantaire speaks to his mother about the possibility of Enjolras and him being wrong for each other--she sets him straight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Omne Initium Difficile Est

Grantaire and Enjolras' second date goes flawlessly, and looks like a scene from a famous romance movie thanks to Jehan's help. They have dinner in a room with a skylight that's decked in lilacs, and Grantaire happily admits that whether he likes the copious amount of flowers or not they smell wonderful.

They manage to keep their hands to themselves and part with but a chaste kiss on the forehead, delivered by Enjolras.

The third date takes place a week afterward, and Grantaire has been busy painting. His room is nearly as messy as he is and this one is casual; he comes in jeans wracked with holes and a t-shirt that has certainly seen better days, with paint splattered in his dark curls and streaked across his skin. He fidgets after dinner, his restless hands stroking the edge of his plate, and Enjolras releases him with great amusement.

"Go," he says with a gesture towards the door. "Paint. I can tell that's what you'd rather do."

Grantaire grins and stands, and he says, "Thank you, Enjolras," like he was raised with manners. Before he leaves he kisses Apollo and this time it's riskier--he fists one hand in his golden hair and kisses him like it is only they left in the world and nothing will matter past this.

Grantaire tells Enjolras he's going to see his mom not a week afterward, right before their fourth date. Enjolras knows little of their relationship--the old Grantaire was fiercely protective of Semele and refused to tell any of the gods where she lived, would even sneak off of Olympus when he visited her. He's nervous but he only tells the artist to be careful and reminds him to take his phone (this is the first time Grantaire has left the mountain and Enjolras wants to come but knows he cannot).

He paces after Grantaire goes and, desperate for something to do, cleans his room from floor to ceiling. As the evening wears on and he still doesn't hear from Grantaire he asks Combeferre to teach him to cook; that goes over about as terribly as could be imagined and most of the gods gather in the kitchen to laugh over his mishaps.

Down on Earth Grantaire waits on his mother's doorstep and is tentative when he knocks--he's not expecting the woman who answers, who looks barely twenty and is all gangly arms and legs. She's coltish but striking, and when she smiles it thaws her blue eyes (the color is identical to Grantaire's).

"Dionysus!" She greets him with a pleased laugh and steps down to hug him, unabashedly maternal. He had asked Enjolras about his mother and Apollo had admitted he didn't know much about her; but he did know how to get a hold of her, at least, by sending a letter to a PO box in Rome. Grantaire wrote a note that explained he'd died and drank from Lethe but he would love to meet her again--he got a reply back not two hours later in the form of a little scroll strapped to the leg of a falcon. It included a plea and an address, and nothing more.

When she releases him from the hug Grantaire follows her inside, sitting down opposite her at the round kitchen table. She lives in a cottage in the middle of a forest in France, and Grantaire questions whether she's here legally (or whether the humans can see this place at all). It's homey and she pours him a cup of coffee without asking, preparing it how he likes and spiking it with rum without a thought.

Grantaire doesn't see, and accepts the mug with a gracious, "Thank you."

They talk for many hours and Grantaire loses track of the time; he learns the story of Semele's rescue from the Underworld by his own hands, and about his decades of wandering the earth when he'd been nothing but a mortal. She tells him about the night he came to her a month after her resurrection drunker than she'd ever seen someone and blubbering about a blonde he couldn't stop painting; Grantaire laughs to hear the tale but internally wonders why he was so wasted.

He manages to subtly ask her about alcohol abuse because every time he brings it up on Olympus his brothers tiptoe around him; Semele tells him flat-out that he's an alcoholic, and has been for as long as she's known him. He's made solemn by this admission and sips his coffee in thought, ignorant of the alcohol he's already drank tonight.

She keeps providing him with drinks and dumps alcohol in each new glass (it doesn't occur to her to ask if he wants it or not--she's only known him as Dionysus, and he takes nothing straight) so Grantaire gets rather drunk as the night wears on. He forgets to call Enjolras due to his mother's skillful storytelling and only remembers at midnight--when he does he sits up with an alarmed, "Shit!"

Semele blinks at him and he fumbles to get his phone out of his pocket, speed-dialing Enjolras. He's still awake and sitting in his room, picking at a blistered burn on the heel of his hand from a disagreement with the stovetop, and he starts when his phone buzzes.

"Grantaire?"

"Oh, fuck, Enj, I'm sorry this took so long, I really got caught up with my mom and--"

"It's fine." Enjolras allows a smile and asks, "How is she?"

"Good." Semele smiles at him over the table and waves a hand so he adds, "She says hello."

"Does she know what we're doing?" Grantaire pauses and Enjolras rephrases that, unsure if he's caused a problem. "That we're dating, I mean."

Grantaire chuckles, says, "Yes, Enjolras, she knows. Actually she was quite ecstatic when I told her."

She'd hugged him so tightly he'd thought he was going to asphyxiate into her hair and proceeded to jump around enthusiastically after, clapping him on the shoulder and saying she was happy he'd finally got what he always wanted. Grantaire didn't quite know what to make of that and decided he'd ask Jehan about it when he got back.

"Oh. Well that's good." Enjolrs leans back on one hand, fiddles with a question. "Are you--have you had some drinks, by chance?"

Grantaire snorts, cushioning his chin in his hand. "Of course not," he says mildly. "I don't drink."

Semele looks up at that, startled, and makes a lot of urgent gestures at Grantaire. He cocks his head at her, confused, and she mouths slowly, "I spiked your drinks."

Grantaire coughs, sets down his juice glass so quickly it nearly spills. "You _what_?"

Semele blushes and shakes her head, says quietly, "Sorry," and Grantaire sighs.

"Okay so I rescind that," he tells Enjolras. "Apparently my mother has been giving me alcohol all night."

Enjolras chuckles because he's more than happy to hear that Grantaire was oblivious to this and wasn't drinking on purpose; he lays back in his bed and says, "When are you coming home?"

He doesn't mean to sound lonely but it comes out that way, and Grantaire stands, braces himself against the table as he makes his way to the door. "I'll be right back," he says to Semele and he steps outside, sits down on the edge of the patio with a groan.

"Semele told me I used to drink a lot," he says, and he's pleasantly buzzed so he doesn't notice how suddenly heavy the silence over the phone became. "That I would come down here all the time shit-faced and talking about you."

Enjolras licks his lips. "Sure," he says, slowly. "I know a bit about that."

"Well I guess I just figured we'd been together for a while but now that I'm thinking about it I never even asked--when you kissed me that first time, down in the Underworld, how long had we been together for?"

"We weren't," Enjolras answers warily. "Although we had kissed before."

Grantaire frowns and picks at the rough fabric of his jeans. "But how long have I been in love with you for?"

"I don't know." Enjolras is being honest, but he knows it's not what Grantaire wants to hear. "I'm sure it's been a while."

He hums and asks, "Is that why I was an alcoholic?"

Enjolras frowns--he's torn between becoming defensive or irritated, with Dionysus laying such a serious accusation at his feet. "I wouldn't think so," he says, a bit sharper than intended. "You were a drunkard long before you joined us on Olympus."

Grantaire flattens his mouth and the pause stretches out between them, taught as a live wire. "I think I'm going to stay with my mother for a while longer," he says finally. "So we can catch up."

Enjolras knows he's pushing him away and grasps at a second chance, says hurriedly, "But we have a date planned for tomorrow." If he apologizes now about the alcohol comment Grantaire will not accept it (he is more obstinate than a mule in that regard) so for this moment he lets it go. "Can you at least come home for that?"

"I guess." Semele is standing in the doorway behind him and she crosses her arms over her chest, shakes her head at his mullish expression (he rewards her with a small smile). "Yes, Enjolras, I'll be there."

"Alright." Enjolras smiles a bit. "I'll see you then."

They hang up and Semele comes and sits down next to her son, resting an open hand on his knee. "Another date?"

"Yes," Grantaire answers with a chuckle. "It's our fifth."

They're quiet for a moment and Semele knows what Grantaire is thinking about--it's written across his face, and she prides herself on being able to read him. She politely clears her throat and he looks sidelong at her, managing a small smile. "So you're back in love so quickly?"

He laughs outright at that, shakes his head and says solemnly, "I'm not sure I ever _wasn't_ in love with him." He steeples his hands. "You know, when he came and got me in the Underworld the first moment I saw him I thought, this man is beautiful. And then he kissed _me_ , and I said to myself, I don't care who he thinks I am--I'll be whoever he wants."

He shakes his head and Semele tempers her smile, settles on a stately nod. "And I do love him, even now--I barely know him and yet I want to sit with him, merely to talk or listen. Yet..." He sighs, and crosses his arms tighter over his chest.

"From what I've heard, we never worked very well together. We got in a lot of fights and avoided each other for weeks as punishment and I simply find myself questioning if we should even try again."

He looks at Semele, who's watching him patiently. "I haven't changed--I've merely forgotten. If something similar happens to us now I will not remember how to forgive him."

She's proud that Grantaire is her son for in this moment she deeply loves him; she squeezes his knee in reassurance, and says, "I think you should try again."

"Really?" He asks disbelievingly. "Why?"

"Because you two are..." She tries to think of a term for it and eventually can't. "You two are meant for each other, I guess."

"Why do you think that?"

She laughs and says simply, "I've seen how you two look at each other."

And it's cliched but cliches exist for a reason, and she does not take it back. "You two disagree but you are fundamentally the same, and even when you are cynical, he is inspirational. You fit together, like two halves of a whole."

Grantaire snorts (he's not a romantic), but he can't completely erase his smile, and he soon nods. "I guess," he allows. "Supposedly we _are_ attracted to our opposites."

He stays the night and crashes on her couch, sleeps off the liquor and is surprised when he gets up and doesn't have even a fragment of a hangover (she doesn't have the heart to tell him that it's because he used to drink so much--he'd have to consume a lot more to get the full effects). He leaves in the morning and kisses her goodbye, swears that he will come back as soon as he can, and goes home.

He's just in time for brunch, which Bahorel is in charge of, and walks into the kitchen as Joly is taking care of the blister on Enjolras' hand. He's rubbing some fine ointment onto it to speed up the healing and it smells like crushed flowers, and Grantaire says as much as he steps in. Everybody looks up and Jehan says with no small amount of glee, "Welcome home!"

He sits with them for the meal and afterward gestures for Enjolras to follow him out. Grantaire walks a ways down a hallway before he's satisfied nobody is close enough to eavesdrop, and stops Enjolras in front of a long window.

"I only wanted to say that I look forward to our date tonight," he says, and Enjolras chuckles. "It'll be our fifth, you know."

"I know," he answers, and Grantaire looks at him, tries to see Enjolras like his mother does. There is no undying love in his eyes as far as Grantaire can see but then Enjolras cups his cheek in one hand and kisses him, and Grantaire forgets what it was he was trying to accomplish.

(Later after their fifth date and a few minutes of kissing Grantaire will stretch out beside Enjolras on the sofa for a movie and think about this again--he swears that if he squints he can see adoration in the way Apollo smiles, and contents himself with this while he threads their fingers together and persuades Enjolras to choose a horror).

**Author's Note:**

> ugh sorry this has taken so long? I was on spring break and things got a bit hectic but I'm back in classes tomorrow so my schedule should straighten out a bit (and thus updates will get a little better)
> 
> not really any notes for this one; I promised two people that I would bring in Semele and thus here she is :)
> 
> title means 'every beginning is difficult'
> 
> shout-out to everybody who comments because I love all of you (and to those who kudos, don't feel left out, you guys are awesome too)  
> p.s. this also includes those who just view because more views make me happy so you're awesome too


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